In Appreciation and Anticipation

Welcoming our new editor-in-chief, Dr. Judith Shamian, also gives us an opportunity to reflect on the past and pay tribute to the people who made World Health & Population a viable and vital publication.

Our predecessor publication, the Journal of Health and Population in Developing Countries, was established in 1998 by Dr. Sagar C. Jain, Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). By 2005 Dr. Jain had retired, and Longwoods was given the opportunity to continue the publication. Fortunately, UNC's Dr. John E. Paul took up the editorial challenge, and nine years later WHP is still a vibrant journal. I thank John for bringing us a strong commitment and a valuable network of authors and editors. Niche journals are typically the work of few, serve a narrow and essential market, and do so without the benefit of many administrative resources. You and your associates have been remarkable in providing important ideas, authors, policies, practices and reviews covering health and healthcare in developing countries. Thank you. We will honour your footprint with a new editor-in-chief and so continue this reviewed and indexed publication in its important role of serving developing countries – everywhere.

Under Dr. Judith Shamian's guidance, WHP will be well served. She has a global reputation as both a thinker and leader. She has been the president of the International Council of Nurses since May 2013 and will continue in this role until 2017.

Dr. Shamian is the former president and CEO of the Victorian Order of Nurses and past president of the Canadian Nurses Association. She is a professor at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto, a co-investigator with the Nursing Health Services Research Unit, and was executive director of the Canadian government's Office of Nursing Policy for five years. In addition to her extensive international work, she was vice president of Nursing at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto and has held various academic positions since 1989.

Dr. Shamian has published and spoken extensively and globally on a wide range of topics. Government departments and agencies and academic bodies, including the World Health Organization (WHO), call on her to speak and consult on many issues related to nursing, health human resources, leadership and healthcare policy.

She was recently elected president of the International Council of Nurses. Her commitment is a focus on healthcare solutions, optimizing the use of evidence and expertise to convince governments and others to improve healthcare policy.

Dr. Shamian has worked in Botswana on an International Development Research Centre-funded research project. The University of Botswana now has numerous PhD-prepared faculty members and offers graduate education. She also established the first WHO Collaborating Centre for Leadership Development in a hospital environment.

She has been a consultant on projects in Israel, China, Barbados, the British Virgin Islands, Poland, Hungary and the United States. She has contributed to many expert panels, including several for the WHO.

Education and Awards

Dr. Shamian obtained her PhD from Case Western Reserve, Cleveland, Ohio; her Master's in Public Health from New York University, and her Baccalaureate in Community Nursing from Concordia University in Montreal. She was awarded the Ross Award for Nursing Leadership in 1995, the Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002 by the Governor General of Canada, and the Award of Merit by the CNA and the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions in 2004. She is the recipient of two honorary doctorate degrees, one from the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, in 2005 and one from Ryerson University, Toronto, in 2006. She has been acknowledged as one of Canada's most powerful women by the national Women's Executive Network. For more on Dr. Shamian I recommend you visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Shamian.

We welcome Judith and look forward to a vigorous, constructive and important contribution to WHP. I know that the journal will be well served.

W. Anton Hart
Publisher,
Longwoods Publishing Corporation
ahart@longwoods.com

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